When insomnia settles in..

Zzzzz.... 

I really, really wanted to go to bed early tonight! I'm so tired of having a funky sleep schedule.   Since I work the late shift, my sleep schedule gets all out of whack. An hour ago I was lying in the dark, wiiiiide awake, trying to sleep for the past 2 hours. Ugh :(

So, here I am at 2am watching "Friends" and blogging.

This weekend I had food on my mind. I'm reading a book about what people eat when they are alone.  I'm only about a quarter in, and so far it's pretty interesting.  It got me thinking what is my "alone" food?  All I know is that being a college student left me with some bad eating habits.

 via

During college, I had always had early classes (8am is definitely early for this non-morning girl!)  I would zombie walk to the cafeteria, grab a bagel/crossaint/eggs sandwich, and eat it on the walk to class.  Not very healthy. Lunch was a sandwich and dinner was anything and everything that sounded delish to a sleep deprived hungry student.  Helloo pizza, burgers, mozzarella sticks, pasta, and chips! Sounds divine.

A year after graduation, I am left trying to re-learn what proper eating habits are.  The knowledge is in there somewhere! My momma taught me right!

How could I forget such simple rules? 

• When I was younger I had no problem with portion control. I ate what was served and then stopped.  
• Snack time was either at 10am recess or when I got home. Food did not constantly go into my mouth.
• I ate plenty of fruit and was excited for plums and peaches.They were special summer treats.
• Bedtime was at 8pm, and there was no time for excessive late-night snackage
• Mealtimes were around a table, not in front of the computer or TV. 
• Oh yeeeah, the best time of day was recess. I think I spent at least an hour exercising a day.

What are some "lessons" you can learn from you childhood self?

Good night! (morning?) I'm off to think peaceful and sleepy thoughts!

Thursday Five!!

Wanna play along? List 5 things that make you feel: 

happy, giddy, joyful, excited, appreciative

 

{one} Shortened work day! Thursdays are always killer at work because we have 1/2 priced vaccines. I'm positively giddy to be home and getting fun things done.

{two} I am so so close to buying a bicycle, and am super excited to go biking with my friends (they've been going without me!) and brother.

{three}Having Glee music playing on repeat... Good music and amazing singers are filling my room with joyful music (go JOURNEY!)

{four} The weather has been gloomy lately, and I get upset because its supposed to be summer for goodness sakes! But when I look at the news I'm appreciative of our slightly gloomy weather. There is far worse happening elsewhere!

{five} This weekend I might be able to pull my hiking boots out of retirement! The prospect of being able to go see some gorgeous waterfalls is making me very happy :)

 

Don't forget to visit MannLand5  to link up!

 

Got Money??

Remember when I visited this majestic castle? Well, it got me thinking about money. Moolah, dollas, benjamins, dough, green...

I won't lie when the Mega Millions reached $190 mill early this year, I got hopeful (I was so sure I would win). I'll bet I'm not the only one who dreams of winning the lottery :)

But, what if I was William Hearst and actually had all that extra cash. Would I build a sprawling hilltop castle and have my famous friends over all the time??

Eh, probably not. First, of all I don't have any famous friends!

What would I do with a little extra "cha-ching?"

• Pay off graduate school- wouldn't it be nice to just concentrate on school work??

• Help pay for my sister's college and for my madre too!

• Give money to Care for Dogs in Thailand and go back every year to volunteer :)

• Donate to the MMCC in San Pedro- fishies for everyone!!

• Buy fun things for the familia- car (or RV, weird I know) for dad, cottage with a large garden for mom

• Travel, travel, travel (in style!)- Australia, all over Europe, Africa (I'm dyying to go)....well basically every where and anywhere

• Buy a nice home, maybe with a pool and large backyard for doggies! or pigs :)

• Clothes- of course, I'm a girl and love clothes, not super nice designer ones, but more than I spend at TJ Maxx or Marshall's

Looking at my list, I guess I'm not the most adventurous person.  Boooring! I really think that if I won the lottery, I don't think I would do a total personality change. I'm frugal now and like to save, so I'll probably end up being an old miser (Hello, Scrooge!)

Now doesn't that look like fun?

What would you do with some W.R. Hearst money?? I'd like to know!

   

Note to Self

Dear Self,

Please do not forget to go to work today. Today is Monday, not the weekend.  Even though lots of other people have the day off and it may feel like a Sunday, its not. Animals still need to be taken care of!

I know you want to stay home and try to cram as much information into your brain for tomorrow's test, but you can't.

Besides, who are you kidding? You love your job, and you already miss this trouble maker.

Love,
Yourself

PS-  Tuesday is your day off. Don't go to work on Tuesday!

Seals and castles and road trips, oh my!

I'm baaack! It was a fun, whirlwind weekend, and its taken a week to get back into the normal rhythm of things :) My dad and I ended up doing 4 cities in 4 days, clocking in about 1,000 miles of driving!

Here's a quick recap of our jam packed weekend!

We first stopped at Hearst Castle, a sprawling 250,000 acre state park in San Simeon. See it waaaaay on top of the hill (I had to use super zoom lens!)
William R. Hearst (an incredibly rich man) and Julia Morgan (an architect who was in my sorority!) built a house with 165 rooms, a zoo, airport, indoor and outdoor pool, and 127 acres of gardens.
The main house (above) and the neptune pool (below). I really wish I could have swam in it! Hmm, wonder what would have happened if I just "fell" in ;)
Its amazing what a lot of money and imagination can build, it was beautiful!

Since I love marine mammals, we drove a little further to Piedras Blancas to see elephant seals!

According to the docent, juvenile males are back to molt, fast, and practice "fighting." Luckily I was a safe distance away, or else I would have been smashed like a pancake. They really went at it!
Went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Why hello Mr. Sea turtle, having a nice snack??
I am now in love with weedy (or is it leafy) sea dragons! Who knew they looked so cool!
Saw more pinnipeds, those are sea lions, not logs!! Very smelly and noisy!
Plus we squeezed in some time in San Jose with my great aunt, and dinner in San Francisco with more relatives! (I took more photos of animals than people..oops!)

What a great weekend to cross things off my 101 list!
#3: Visit Hearst Castle
#1: Visit 3 aquariums (2 more to go!)
#8: Try 5 new restaurants (Cafe Yulong in Mountain View, haven't had Chinese in so long!)
#16: Read 50 new books (All the driving left me with plenty of time to read, I finished 206 Bones, by Kathy Riechs)

I'm so glad I was able to get away last weekend because all I'll be doing this weekend is studying! I have an exam coming up fast! Eeek!

Hope everyone has a safe and sparkly 4th of July tomorrow!